An independent pharmacy was managing 20+ locum pharmacists across shifting rotas with no central system. Payment dates, hours, and rates were tracked across separate spreadsheets — some maintained by different people, some out of date. Payments were frequently late or calculated incorrectly. Scheduling clashes went unnoticed until someone did not show up. The admin overhead was absorbing several hours every week.
The pharmacy had tried to manage this with a combination of Excel and paper records. The core issue was that the data lived in too many places: one spreadsheet for rota scheduling, another for hours worked, another for pay rates, and emails as the record of any changes. Nothing connected. Every month required someone to reconcile across all of these sources, manually calculate pay for each locum, and chase down any discrepancies before payments could go out.
A custom locum management tool — a simple, clean web-based system built around how the pharmacy actually operates. A single input form captures each shift: locum name, date, hours worked, and agreed pay rate. The system calculates pay automatically, highlights payment due dates as they approach, flags scheduling conflicts at the point of booking, and keeps a complete historical record of every shift and payment.
The tool was designed to be used by non-technical staff with no training required. The interface is deliberately simple — the complexity is in the logic underneath. We built it in a single fixed-price project, delivered within two weeks of the brief being agreed.
The pharmacy team now spends minutes on locum admin instead of hours. Every payment goes out accurately and on time. Scheduling conflicts are caught before they become problems rather than discovered when someone does not arrive.
Since launch there have been zero missed or incorrect payments. The stress of month-end payroll reconciliation has been eliminated. The time saved has been redirected to clinical and operational work that actually requires the team's attention.
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